I had a fabulous time at the Fokine program last night (Sorry I missed you djb!)

I know the Scheherazade was pretty over the top, but I really enjoyed it1 Of course Chopiniana was terrific as well, and firebird, those sets just kill me. The only thing I didn't like was the black curtain before the very end of the ballet. The curtain comes down and we wait while the stage hands wrestle with the props, clear off stray apples and Ivan and the princess hustle into something splendidly white. Surely there must be a better way... I didn't remember that from when I saw Firebird at the Met. Is it always like that or was it different because of the way the house is set up? Does anyone know?

I have never seen Firebird at the Met, so can't comment. Indeed the only version I'm familiar with is Liepa's Fokine video version, and of course with film, no black curtain needed, and the options are endless. You raise a good question ME, but my guess would be it's due to technical restrictions at Zellerbach. (and that is only a guess)

I thought the sets for Scheherezade *and* Firebird were stunning. The composition of the program really highlights the flexibility in Fokine's choreographic talents: to be able to create the emotive, classical, romantic Chopiniana and then go on to a sexy, racy Scheherezade... I made this comment in the other thread but there is something for everyone in this program.

How did everyone like the "overture" to the program? I loved it. On the video Essential Stars of the Russian Ballet, at the Kirov performance in London, Gergiev opens the program with the polonaise from Evgenii Onegin. Those polonaises certainly are rousing openers. However, I thought Chopin's Military Polonaise was too boisterous a piece to make a smooth transition into Chopiniana.

Speaking of the music in the performance, I wish I could have been in the audience in Paris in 1910 at the premiere of Firebird, just for the experience of hearing that wonderful music for the first time. (I guess I was too young when I heard it the first time to remember it.) I think I would have enjoyed the ballet last night no matter what was going on onstage.

Imagine 19th century ballet turned in a centrifuge. Out go the stiff tutus, the stagey forays into dead-end divertissement and grandiloquent displays of virtuosity. Out, too, are the traditional stage arrangements, with their visual and social hierarchies mirroring a world of princes, queens and tsars.

What remains of the work of early 20th century choreographer Mikhail Fokine performed by the Kirov Ballet as it was Tuesday at Cal Performances in Berkeley is a distillation that is not only modernist but leads to thrilling spectacle and explosive choreographic arrangements.

I'm confused (as usual...) and feeling like I'm hallucinating. I WAS very tired that night... but was that NOT Lopatkina on Tuesday night? It sure looked like her, but the Chron review notes Tkachenko as Zobeide.

Oh and I agree djb, about the polonaise militaire. It's something they do in the Russian productions, although I think we're more used to hearing the Prelude music over here. I believe that the tradition of using the military polonaise came about during the Diaghilev years though, and if memory serves me right it was because they wanted a more upbeat opening to start the program off. I could be wrong about that though...

Whew! I'm not crazy!! I was second-guessing myself there for a moment, but then I kept remembering that one aggrieved and yet, I-am-so-totally-in-TROUBLE look that she gave the audience right after the Golden Slave got killed that kept coming back to my mind's eye.

Heehee, yeah, she can definitely act! She and Zelensky were really pretty...into that pas de deux.... There was a moment I loved when Zelensky was looking over at her and flashed a little smile, not a stage smile, or a leer, but just a nice natural, "Wow, she is really something" smile.

Do they usually get to dance together in Scheh. or is she usually with Ruzimatov?

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